Launching its long winter’s march this week, flu now is widespread across Ohio. Hamilton County and Northern Kentucky are still at low levels of flu, but the trends could be turning up.

The Ohio Department of Health said Tuesday that as of the week ended Dec. 9, the geographic levels of flu went from regional to widespread – 144 new hospitalizations for flu compared to 92 the week before and 29 in the same week of 2016. No child deaths from flu have registered so far.

Last year, flu did not become widespread in Ohio until mid-January.

The 401 total statewide hospitalizations for flu for the 2017-2018 season is running above the five-year average. The flu season is Oct. 1 to May 1, with the peak generally in January, February and March.

In Hamilton County, 15 people have been hospitalized for flu since Oct. 1. David Carlson, director of epidemiology for Hamilton County Public Health, said the data coming in so far say flu is at a low level. “I can’t really say that we’re trending up. All the data suggest that we haven’t really seen a pronounced uptick in flu.”

In Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties, 152 flu cases and 19 hospitalizations were reported from Oct. 1 to Dec. 16. “It’s more than in previous years, but not yet out of the ordinary,” said Emily Gresham Wherle, spokesman for Northern Kentucky Health Department.

In the 2016-17 flu season, Northern Kentucky had 37 cases reported at this point in the season. The severe 2014-2015 flu season saw 617 cases by mid-December.

Public health officials say the week before Christmas is not too late to get a flu shot. The Ohio Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that anyone 6 months and older get the vaccine.

The CDC studies the effectiveness of flu vaccines since it varies depending on the strain of virus. In general, the CDC says that flu vaccination reduces the risk of contracting flu by between 40 percent and 60 percent when the vaccine matches the virus.

Last season, vaccine effectiveness against all circulating viruses in the United States was 39 percent. This season's flu vaccine includes the same component as last season, and most circulating strains tested in the United States this season are still similar to last year’s most widespread virus. The CDC said it expects the same effectiveness from vaccines this year.

Flu is now widespread in Ohio, the state health department says, and it's ahead of schedule.(Photo: Ohio Department of Health)